Federal Appeals Court to Hear Arguments in Troy Davis’ Appeal

Attorneys for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to argue before a three-judge pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit on December 9 in Atlanta. The Court will hear argu­ments on whether Davis can file a sec­ond fed­er­al chal­lenge to his con­vic­tion based on new evi­dence of his inno­cence. The Court stayed Davis’ exe­cu­tion short­ly before he was to receive a lethal injec­tion so that it could review the con­sti­tu­tion­al issues in his case.

Davis’ case has gar­nered both inter­na­tion­al and nation­al atten­tion. Former President Jimmy Carter and the European Union were among those call­ing for a stay of exe­cu­tion. Davis was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on October 27 after the U.S. Supreme Court denied review fol­low­ing Davis’ unsuc­cess­ful appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Davis’ orig­i­nal con­vic­tion was based pri­mar­i­ly on eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny. Since the 1991 tri­al, 7 of the 9 non-police eye­wit­ness­es have recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny, with some point­ing to anoth­er sus­pect.

(Associated Press, ​“Federal appeals court to hear Troy Davis case Dec. 9,” November 19, 2008). See also Innocence.